My Thoughts on the Jets selecting Quinton Coples

Now that the weekend is over and the dust is starting to settle on a busy weekend and exciting draft, I’m finding the time to really think about the Jets draft choices and what they mean to the future success of the team.

I’ll be breaking out each draft choice is separate posts, so let’s start with the first pick in the 2012 draft for our Gang Green:

Quinton Coples – R1, 16(16)

Ben Liebenberg/ASSOCIATED PRES

I’ll be honest. I was expecting the Jets to pull the trigger on Melvin Ingram. I named Coples as a player I would want here ONLY if Ingram was taken. There was also rumors that the Jets wanted Bruce Irvin in a bad way, who by the way was called a major reach when Seattle took him at 15, on pick ahead of the Jets.

So it seams that the Jets “settled” for Quinton Coples. The pick had Jets fans in attendance booing in their typical fashion and had me scratching my head that they passed on a stud in Ingram.

I get the pick. This is a boom or bust, but with recent history with guys such as that Gholston guy, you would think the Jets would want to please their fan base. But ah, there lies the rub. Jets fans think the organization should make decisions to please them.

The knock on Copels is that his motor runs “hot and cold”, is not motivated, and is being called a bust before he even steps on the field. I think it is utterly ridiculous to call a guy a bust before he even steps on the field because of the sins of the Jets in past with Vernon Gholston.

It seems like Quinton will take this early criticism and use it as his fuel:

“I always play with a chip on my shoulder,” Coples said on his first day at the Jets’ Florham Park facility. “There’s always room to get better, there’s always room to improve, and that’s how I take it. That’s how I live life.”

Other reasons why the pick is questionable is that Coples plays most of his career in a 4-3, and now the Jets will ask him to line up in a 3-4. He also has been called a starter by Rex Ryan without proving himself to the rest of his teammates, and for Rex to dismiss locker room favorite and proven veteran Mike DeVito may be a mistake. Rex did backtrack on that comment, but Ryan proves that thinking before speaking has never been his MO.

“I really can’t tell you the exact role right now,” Ryan said about DeVito. “I shouldn’t have said that about Quinton either. It really depends on what packages (are) out there.”

Now that the Combine is over and with the NFL Deadlines looming, Jets rumors are running rampant on Twitter. We give you the latest, our opinion if they are true or not and our best guess on the probability of them happening.
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